


It's A Slow Slide Into Misandry

by bendingwind



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bendingwind/pseuds/bendingwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol's all fixed up and Jessica's moved on, and things have... changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's A Slow Slide Into Misandry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shadowen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowen/gifts).



“So,” Jessica says, setting a carton each of their favorite flavors of ice cream on the table with a thump. Carol looks up from where she’s fiddling with the tablet, looking at her perfectly normal brain scans over and over again.

Her second half-broken kitchen chair screeches against the floor as Jessica pulls it back and sits down across from her, tossing her a spoon that she catches out of instinct.

“You’re not dying anymore, which calls for ice cream, and my post-boyfriend-movie-and-ice-cream date is past due,” Jessica says, happily peeling the lid off of her carton of ice cream and digging in. Carol grins at her and digs into her own.

“Princess Bride?” Jessica asks about the time she gets halfway through her carton. Carol hums her agreement, even though she’s really more in the mood for explosions. It’s probably for the best; it would just make her want to fly out and blow things up, and there isn’t anything _to_ blow up.

“Why did you break up?” Carol asks, after they’ve moved to the couch and while the opening credits are scrolling. She remembers Jessica telling her about it, god, _months_ ago, but she’d had other things on her mind.

“He slept with some chick with red hair. Named _Cherry_ ,” Jess says, sounding appropriately appalled. Carol can’t blame her, because _seriously_. “She showed up and was _all over_ him, right in front of me, and the bastard didn’t even think it would be a problem.”

Carol wants to say I told you so, dude’s hot but he’s a hot mess, you can do better, but she’s distracted by the way Jessica is gently chewing on her lip, by the slight curl of her hair.

Carol sighs and shakes her head. It’s not a new thing, but it’s not something she’s proud of either. She can’t kid herself into believing she’d be any better for Jess than Clint was; they both have a way of fucking up their love lives spectacularly.

Carol nudges Jessica with her foot, because she’s looking particularly melancholy and Carol knows she’s regretting her decision to ever get involved.

“Hey,” she says, and when Jess looks up she offers her a sheepish, awkward grin. “You know my history with men, I’m not gonna judge you.”

“You seemed pretty willing to judge me before I broke up with Clint,” Jess says, but she’s smirking now and her eyes are crinkled up in that way that they do when she’s amused. Carol nudges her again.

“We both have shit taste in men,” Carol agrees. Jessica sits up a little straighter, shifts, wraps an arm around Carol and leans her head on Carol’s shoulder. Carol does her best not to obviously stiffen, to give away that she doesn’t know what to do with this.

God, so _close_ she can almost believe...

“Men,” Jessica complains, sounding vaguely disgusted with the entire gender.

“Men,” Carol agrees, but it doesn’t come out quite as strong as she intended.

On the screen Buttercup is being kidnapped by Vizzini, Inigo and Fezzik. Jessica shifts against her, nuzzling into her neck, and this time Carol is too surprised to prevent herself from freezing. Jess pulls away and looks at her, eyes heavy-lidded and considering.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” she says, slowly, like she’s still chewing her words over.

“Maybe what’s the problem?” Carol asks, and she sounds _stupidly_ breathless to her own ears. This is going to end in tears, she just knows it.

“Men,” Jess says, like it’s obvious, and she leans forward and presses her lips against Carol’s. Carol’s been carefully not-thinking and hopelessly dreaming about this for too long to do anything but lean into the kiss, lick filthily into Jessica’s mouth and press closer, closer, like maybe she could sink into the woman beside her on the couch if she could just get close enough.

She loses track of time until Jess pulls away, studying her with something between hope and amusement. Carol doesn’t know how to read that, doesn’t know what to expect after years of Jessica only showing interest in being friends, and suddenly... finally... this.

“You don’t even like girls,” Carol blurts out, because _really_.

Jessica’s expression morphs from a sort of amused fondness to exasperation.

“Carol, you _met my ex-girlfriend_ a couple of years ago.”

Carol stares at her. She sort of remembers, maybe...?

“That was your ex- _girlfriend_?”

“Yeah, I was introducing my ex to my _best friend_ so that I could complain about her to you later. Which I did. At length.”

Jessica rolls her eyes and leans over to press another quick kiss against Carol’s lips. They watch each other, Carol bemused, Jessica slightly impatient.

“So?” Jessica asks after a moment, biting her lip, “You in?”

Carol considers. She’s going to fuck everything up and probably pretty spectacularly, but then, Jess is used to her fuck-ups. Maybe it’ll work out after all. She tilts her head and then smiles, a little shyly.

“Yeah, I guess so. _Men_ , right?” she offers. Jessica laughs.

“Let’s not talk about men right now,” she says, and she leans in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [sabinelagrande](archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelandgrande) for a super-speedy beta-read.


End file.
